Former World No 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia is the top seed and Russian Maria Kirilenko is 2nd seed at the 2013 PTT Pattaya Open WTA professional women’s tennis tournament. The event which has prize money of US$235,000 will be played at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Pattaya from 27 January – 3 February.
Top seed Ana Ivanovic is making her second appearance at Pattaya, and is currently ranked No 13 in the world. She is a former Grand Slam champion and a holder of 11 WTA titles. Second seed is Maria Kirilenko of Russia, she is ranked no 14 in the world and was a beaten finalist in the tournament in 2012.
Ana Ivanovic.
Seeded No 3 is Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan who finished 2012 ranked no 25 in the world on the back of 2 WTA titles in 2012 at Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou. She also reached the semi-final in Pattaya last year being beaten by eventual champion Daniela Hantuchova.
Fourth seed is Sorana Cirstea of Romania, a semi-finalist last year who finished the year ranked at No 27. Germany’s Sabine Lisicki is the 5th seed, with the British girls Heather Watson and Laura Robson seeded 6th and 8th respectively. Sandwiched between them is 7th seed Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.
Two previous Thailand champions have joined the tournament, Shahar Peer who won the tournament in 2006 and Vania King who won the PTT Bangkok Open in 2007. No Thai player has gained automatic entry to the main draw and all will be appearing in the qualifying rounds on 27 – 28 January, with main draw matches starting on 28 January with play starting from 15.00 daily until Friday 1 February. For the final 2 days of the tournament, Saturday 2 February and Sunday 3 February matches will start from 16.00.
For more information on the tournament and tickets, please contact Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd at Tel: 02-3113414/5 or via the website at www.pentanglepromotions.com.
WTA tennis at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Pattaya.
Maria Kirilenko.